Jim Tressel: Seemingly Caught in Another Lie, the Coach's End Could Be Near

Larry Burton (Syndicated Writer)

It's now ridiculous. It's like the old joke, "How do you tell if Jim Tressel's lying?" The answer of course, is his mouth is moving.

Remember when Tressel told the world the reason he didn't come clean to the school and the NCAA was his desire to keep things in "confidence" because of an ongoing federal investigation?

Now The Columbus Dispatch is reporting that Tressel forwarded e-mails to a friend and alleged mentor of Terrell Pryor, containing information about players selling merchandise to a local tattoo parlor owner under federal investigation.

This friend is Ted Sarniak, a businessman who sort of acts like a quasi agent and mentor for Pryor. He accompanied him on many recruiting visits and still sees him as an "advisor."

This in bold from the Dispatch report:

During a news conference on March 8 to announce NCAA ethics violations by Tressel, the coach said he kept the information to himself to protect the confidentiality of the federal investigation and for the safety of his players.

But Tressel also nodded his head and said "um-hmm" when asked whether he had forwarded the emails to anyone.

Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith quickly intervened to prevent Tressel from answering that question about the matter currently under investigation by the NCAA.

The Dispatch has formally filed a public-records request so they can make them public. 

So much now for Tressel's alibi. Now we learn that while he felt he couldn't trust his own school's attorneys, he felt he could confide in a man with a relationship with Pryor who has no legal or moral obligation to keep anything quiet.

Tressel has now made the University a liar too on many occasions. The school said they had investigated emails and found nothing. Now all of a sudden there are emails coming out the wazoo that show that wasn't true.

Bruce Pearl was Tennessee's most successful basketball coach in their history, but he was fired for lying and trying to cover up a silly secondary violation.

When will Ohio State's administration and fans learn that it was never about the crime, but the lying and cover up?

Now, everything Tressel said in his press conference to defend his action of lying to the NCAA has been proven to be yet another lie.

At least in Pearl's case, there was some cloudiness and testimony that had to be believed. With Tressel, there's video and paper signatures of his lies that are corroborated with incriminating emails that prove without any other testimony from anyone that he lied to the NCAA multiple times at different dates and tried to cover up a violation.

It's time for Tressel to step down now more than ever. The NCAA now needs no other proof or evidence to come down hard on not just Tressel but the entire OSU program.

This is past even the most loyal Buckeye fan seeing this as anything short of a train wreck now. Dozens of major publications are now calling for the dismissal of Tressel, including some in Ohio.

Some fans are calling the mere reporting of the facts of this case as a case of "hatred" against the Buckeye program or worse. Nothing could be further from the truth. People who love college football simply want to report the facts, blame the guilty party and have them pay the penalty instead of the school and the innocent players on that team.

OSU can recover from firing Tressel far sooner than they can by holding on to him and allowing him to drag the program down with him.